Meet Spook—the intrepid traveller

People who follow this blog know I have dogs (I’ve had lots of dogs), but many of you would not know that I’ve also been owned by cats. There was Baby (who adored my dad), Red and Black (identical twin kittens named after the colour of their collars), Spook and lastly Quincy (the only cat I’ve had in Australia, and a very grumpy one at that).

This post is about Spook.

I came to be owned by Spook quite by chance.

At the time, I was working for a daily newspaper in central Nebraska. One October day in 1970, I was assigned to get a picture of the apple harvest. Too easy. I hopped in the car and drove to one of the local orchards where a horde of kittens vied for my attention.

But one kept crawling up the leg of my jeans—geez cats’ claws allow them to go almost anywhere.

Spook tries to endear herself to a young Poor John

As I was about to leave, the farmer pointed at my ‘fan club’ and said, ‘She seems to be keen on you. You can have her if you want her. I won’t be vaccinating any of them’. Distemper is a death sentence for animals, so I bundled her in the car and took her home.

One look at her and you might figure out how she got her name of Spook—black cat with golden eyes outlined in gold fur. But she could easily have been called Devil. I fostered a poodle about the same time and Spook terrorised that poor dog. She would lie in wait as Astro—yeah that was his name—walked down the corridor, and jump out and hiss at him.

Luckily I never had to have Astro treated for a heart attack, but I did give him to a deaf friend, who appreciated the fact that he barked whenever the phone rang or someone knocked at the door.

But I digress.

This is about Spook.

I married Poor John in Jordan, and then had to return to the US for four months to finish a teaching contract. I told him that I’d be returning with the dog (Bella), but I didn’t mention the cat. Surely it would be easy to find a new home for a cat.

But no it wasn’t at all easy, so and Bella AND Spook came with me to Jordan. That is another story.

Today I’m telling about when the two critters returned to the USA after their stint in the Middle East to stay with, Jane, one of my sisters.

From here, I’ll let the 1982 articles in the Omaha-World Herald tell the story.

In Burma, Bella and Spook wait patiently for the kitchen door to open and dinner to be served

World traveler missing in Omahaby Jeff Jordan (Tuesday, 29 June, 1982)
‘A young Omaha woman, close to tears, called The World-Herald last week. She had lost her cat.

‘Now, lost cats are all too commonplace. But not this one. The pet’s name is Spook, and for nine years, she’s been a world traveler. Her owner is Jane Austin, a nurse at the University Hospital, and she was beside herself when she called.

‘Strictly speaking, Spook belongs to Miss Austin’s sister, Peggy Bright, the wife of an Australian diplomat. The couple went through Omaha a month ago, on their way from the Middle East to a new post in Canberra, Australia.

‘Spook and her lifelong playmate, Bella, an Alsatian dog, could not be taken along because of the 12-month quarantine the Australian government requires of incoming animals, a quarantine that must be served in London, England. So, as she has on other occasions, Miss Austin volunteered to keep Spook and Bella until the Brights are moved to a country more hospitable to pets.

‘Actually, the animals are Nebraskans, born when Peggy Bright was single and a reporter for the Kearney Hub. Miss Austin took them the first time in 1976 when her sister went to Cairo, Egypt, on a Rhodes [actually it was a Rotary] scholarship where she met her future husband. They were later married in Amman, Jordan, [actually we were married in Ajlun, Jordan, but that’s another story], just after Mrs Bright came back to finish out a teaching contract at Kearney State College [now University of Nebraska at Kearney].

‘In 1980 she returned to her husband, taking Spook and Bella on the first of their travels. Until last month, the Brights and their pets were rotating their diplomatic assignments among the capitals of Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

‘They were in Beirut last summer when Miss Austin visited them for five weeks.

‘Now, only a month after the Brights have gone off to Australia, Miss Austin is facing the possibility that she’ll have to tell them that she’s lost Spook.

‘It happened last Wednesday, she said. While she was away from her newly purchased house at 48th and Bancroft Streets, some neighborhood youngsters were shooting firecrackers. Spook, she later learned, decided to seek safety and jumped into the open car of a woman visiting Miss Austin’s next door neighbor.

‘Not realizing Spook was inside, she drove home to 40th and Grover Streets and locked the car for the night. When she opened the door Thursday morning, Spook took off.

Bella was so beautiful. She was on the small side and I always thought of her as a Belgian shepherd

‘Miss Austin and her mother have been searching for her, with no results. They’ve placed ads in The World Herald, announcements on the radio stations and have searched countless times—her mother in the daytime and Miss Austin at night when she gets home from the hospital.

‘“I bet I’ve spent seven hours every day, walking that neighborhood, looking and calling for her,” she said. “My mother walked it for hours, clinking a spoon against a can of cat food because she’ll come to that should.

‘I just moved her a month ago and I don’t think Spook can find her way home. I didn’t let her out much…I was trying to be so careful

‘Spook should not be hard to identify, thought she departed without collar and tags. She’s a medium-sized black cat, splattered with tan flecks, calico fashion. One side of her chin is black, the other tan, and she has tan rings around her eyes. ‘She looks like a little raccoon,” Miss Austin said.

Meanwhile, every afternoon at 4, Miss Austin goes to the Humane Society “to see if she’s there or if they’ve found her body,” then she and Bella walk the neighborhood near 40th and Grover Streets. “The dog’s just sick that she’s gone. They’ve been everywhere together since they were babies.”

‘Spook, the world traveller, was reunited with her owner on the Fourth of July, thanks to a World-Herald want ad and a young woman with a fondness for animals.

‘Spook, spooked by some firecrackers June 23, is back with Omaha nurse Jane Austin and her lifelong chum, an Alsatian dog named Bella.

‘Both can thank Kathy Newman of 4009 Spring St., a pet owner who regularly puts cat food out in her backyard and thus kept Spook from starving during her 10-day absence from home.

[Then three paragraphs of recap, which you don’t need.]

‘Mrs Newman explained in a telephone interview that the backyard hors d’oeuvres are not for her cat, Napkin, but for the squirrels, mourning doves and cardinals that live in her yard, along with occasional visiting cats.

‘“My dear little cat is street stupid and only goes out on a leash.” Mrs. Newman said, “but she sit and talks to them through the window and they talk back.”

Along about June 25, she noticed Spook was becoming one of the backyard regulars.

‘“I had seen them (Miss Austin and her mother) in the neighborhood one day, calling for Spook, and Sunday, July 4th, I finally made the connection (to the want ad). I said, ‘Spook, you stay where you are. I have to call your Mommy’.”

‘There also followed a quick phone call to Australia to tell Miss Austin’s sister that the cat had been found—and by a woman who refused any suggestion of reward.

‘Mrs. Newman’s love of pets goes way back, she said, and included numerous cats, dogs, a racing pigeon (No. 219) and Squeaky, a disoriented bat her father brought home one snowy day when she was a girl.

Footnote
There are plenty of other shorter stories about Spook. She had adventures galore ahead. I shipped both animals to Burma in 1984 to be with us while we were on posting there. That’s where Spook stole everyone’s heart, learned to play bridge and had a role in a play. She lived until she was 21.

Spook and Loretta study their bridge hand. Trust me, this was not posed

I remember how she sat on the high cabinet by the doorway into the dining room at the sorority house in Kearney and rearranged everyone’s beehive hairdo as they would walk through the door. Or sit on the roof on the house on Central. She and Bella were quite the pair!

Loved your story. We had an old Tomcat that would leave us every once in awhile to go on an adventure. He would come home a little banged up from fights etc, dad would fix him up and off he would go. Kids would come and say he was their cat and Dad said they were welcome to keep him if he would stay. We took him to a cottage one summer and the day we were leaving he disappeared again. We found him the next summer living at the local grocery store! My dad was in the Navy and loved his “sailor” spirit. Thomas slowed down in his old years and we were his last family. Thanks for letting think of him today.😻

Wow, we rode with Spook(y?) & Co. on the road to Mandalay, in one of the most memorable journeys ever! No matter how wobbly the rail car got, Spook maintained a levelness due to her amazing feline suspension system. Not bad for a barn cat from Nebraska (if I’m not mistaken)!

Oh, how well I remember Spook and Bella from their days on Mayberry St! I will never forget Spook’s ability to make her wishes known. I watched her regularly shove a brass tray of teacups & accoutrements incrementally towards the edge of a desk, glancing up after each nudge to be sure it was seen and understood. (Oh, it was.) Her dinner party behavior was less than stellar, however. I recall her consuming a fair portion of a stick of butter awaiting a pepper steak. She cleverly used her species identity to conceal her actions. What a character she was! Seems Bella just rolled her eyes.

Spook would have got on well with our Sam, the red heeler cattle dog. He lived with us in Sydney’s Balmain soon after our marriage in Finland. He used to indeed grab the heels of any visitor which amused us no-end.
After our three children were born (in rapid succession) and having always had the intention to return and live forever in a hut deep in a Finnish forest and paint art, we regrettably left dear Sam with my parents in Revesby.
It was after a couple of months that we received a call in Holland from one of our previous neighbours in Balmain that Sam had returned to our Balmain address. He had managed, and heaven only knows how, to walk from Revesby, an outer suburb, back to Balmain. This included crossing several major highways, including the very busy Parramatta Rd.
Helvi and I both shed a tear. How could we have left poor Sam behind? Anyway, he was returned to my parents and lived for many years, but am not sure if Sam still enjoyed many heels after that trauma.

Oh, how I love Spook’s story, Peggy. Such precious memories, and to think she lived to 21! I guess she loved her life as a world traveler. We have recently rescued a pitch black kitten, called Midnight, from the street, so she will be relocating with us, once we move to Portugal. She brings such joy to our life, and from the look of it, Spook did the same for you.

Your story has me in tears as I remember our little Fuji. Spook looks so much like her, a foster cat who decided she wanted us and no-one else. She was a brindle with yellow rimmed eyes, one of which was milky white. She had been captured with several kittens, all starving and delivered to the cat haven. The kittens were re-homed easily. My job was to get the mother cat socialised and ready for re-homing also. She was the ugliest cat, but had the sweetest nature. We named her Fuji after the Apple (also known as the ugly Apple). She hated everyone except us. In fact any visitors we has rarely saw her as she’d hide whenever anyone was around. But she’d run to greet us when we entered the house. Her story didn’t have Spooks happy 21 year old ending though….. sad!

A fun story, Peggy. It reminds me of Animal Couriers, one of my followers (may be yours as well) who is always transporting pets around from country to country so that they can keep up with their owners. Like the attack cat portion. My cat Rasputin was like that in Liberia. He’d hide out in clumps of grass and charge out at the local dogs when they dared to pass by. 🙂 –Curt

What a wonderful tale, Peggy. I knew you had to be a secret cat lover – all the best people are…😻 We only ever have animals that turn up on our doorstep and even posted Katniss’s picture all over the neighborhood in case she was a lost pet. Our three Egyptian cats were the reason why took a posting in Houston (now permanent) – we didn’t have to worry about them in quarantine. Texas has more rabies than Egypt. One of our old cats went missing for days but had been run over and concussed under the neighbor’s hen house. She lived to 18. Spook has exactly the same eyes as Katniss.

Peggy, I’m so sorry to bomb your timeline but I am having problems with my site. I saw a comment from you on my last post, read it, went to reply and accidentally deleted it 😟 I reinstated it but it is now not showing so I just wanted to thank you and assure you that I am not ignoring you nor being rude – just inept! Have a super-lovely day and speak very soon xx

I’ve never been a cat person, but the relationships between cats and dogs have always fascinated me. I’m so happy this adventure had a happy ending! And somehow, with this cat’s smarts, I’m not surprised the little bugger learned bridge. It is a thinking game, after all. 😉 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

When bridge was at my house in Rangoon, Spook often sat on Loretta’s lap and studied the cards. I wish I had a pic of the time she reached out to take a trick with her paw. You’d have liked Spook. She was very doggy.

She sounds like it! I had to catsit for a neighbor once as a kid. Neighbors kind of forgot to tell us how crazy their cats were. One leapt at my face with claws out, aaaaand I’ve never been a cat person since.
Dumb lion cat.

“… that I’ve also been owned by cats.” so true, so true. cats are the only animals that domesticated themselves…the old saying “dogs have owners, cats have staff.” is soooo true. can you tell i love cats? continue…